Social media entered our lives as a way of keeping in touch inspite of the distances that separate us. Enter FB and Twitter and the whole world seems to have changed in how they connect to each other and what they share.
In this new age of social interactions it was just a matter of time before enterprises found that whether they like it or not, at times they were the topic of conversation. And these conversations had a domino effect on the prospective and existing buyer's perception of the company and it's products.
Consequently, companies started investing in being able to monitor the social channel to increase brand visibility as well as respond to customer problems which led to a new way to connect to the market. This led to the rise of Social Relationship Marketing or SRM.
In a very short time, SRM solutions flooded the market and have an ever increasing presence over the new found medium for enterprises to be able to take advantage of.
Loosely speaking (and with my limited knowledge) SRM solutions grew in the following pillars :-
1) Social Media Marketing :- More and more solutions give enterprises the ability to showcase their products over Facebook by allowing them to create pages to create awareness of their latest products and the benefit it offers. This ability requires companies to leverage pre-defined templates to create FB pages and then monitor the response from the market as well as provide a sneak preview to the influencers on what's coming up next. Companies also leverage the Twitter platform to announce the latest products available to connect to their followers. Both of these platforms gave marketers the flexibility to be global as well as local by creating geographically specific content. The best part.....it allows companies to execute marketing campaigns at a fraction of the cost as compared to traditional means.
2) Social Intelligence:- It was long known that the biggest influencers and salespeople for the next sale are the customers themselves. Prospective buyers would rely more on a review given by a peer who has had first hand experience with the company and it's product than on a salesperson/advertisement. On the flip-side, a bad review for the company over social media would mean that the entire network of the disgruntled customer would think twice before investing in the company's products. The only way of finding out if a customer has a problem and has communicated over the social media is also to listen and resolve over the same channel. Applications today can listen to your customers and rate their sentiments over the net. Intelligence applications can provide insight into how many times a particular brand has been talked about on the net as well as whether it left a positive impression or a negative one. This would help not only in measuring the success of the latest campaign but also to resolve support issues at the earliest. Most importantly, if used to it's full extent then it would give every organization an insight into their product's acceptance in the markets it is sold in. Organizations can then re-use this information to plan and design the next product for the customers based on first hand knowledge of the customer's experience. The icing on the cake.......feedback from social media is much quicker than the traditional channels/methods.
Whereas, social media channels provide the shortest time to market and feedback mechanisms it also has a flip side due to the same reasons.
A wrong move over the social media can not only immediately bring a product in the news for the wrong reasons but will also require an even quicker response to quell any disquiet due to the same.
In light of the above, it becomes essential for organizations to have a well thought out strategy for the new media to be able to social-ize with their biggest sales force effectively.
After all when an entire country can come to a boiling point and result in a change in regime then it is at our own peril that we discount such a powerful democratic media.
In this new age of social interactions it was just a matter of time before enterprises found that whether they like it or not, at times they were the topic of conversation. And these conversations had a domino effect on the prospective and existing buyer's perception of the company and it's products.
Consequently, companies started investing in being able to monitor the social channel to increase brand visibility as well as respond to customer problems which led to a new way to connect to the market. This led to the rise of Social Relationship Marketing or SRM.
In a very short time, SRM solutions flooded the market and have an ever increasing presence over the new found medium for enterprises to be able to take advantage of.
Loosely speaking (and with my limited knowledge) SRM solutions grew in the following pillars :-
1) Social Media Marketing :- More and more solutions give enterprises the ability to showcase their products over Facebook by allowing them to create pages to create awareness of their latest products and the benefit it offers. This ability requires companies to leverage pre-defined templates to create FB pages and then monitor the response from the market as well as provide a sneak preview to the influencers on what's coming up next. Companies also leverage the Twitter platform to announce the latest products available to connect to their followers. Both of these platforms gave marketers the flexibility to be global as well as local by creating geographically specific content. The best part.....it allows companies to execute marketing campaigns at a fraction of the cost as compared to traditional means.
2) Social Intelligence:- It was long known that the biggest influencers and salespeople for the next sale are the customers themselves. Prospective buyers would rely more on a review given by a peer who has had first hand experience with the company and it's product than on a salesperson/advertisement. On the flip-side, a bad review for the company over social media would mean that the entire network of the disgruntled customer would think twice before investing in the company's products. The only way of finding out if a customer has a problem and has communicated over the social media is also to listen and resolve over the same channel. Applications today can listen to your customers and rate their sentiments over the net. Intelligence applications can provide insight into how many times a particular brand has been talked about on the net as well as whether it left a positive impression or a negative one. This would help not only in measuring the success of the latest campaign but also to resolve support issues at the earliest. Most importantly, if used to it's full extent then it would give every organization an insight into their product's acceptance in the markets it is sold in. Organizations can then re-use this information to plan and design the next product for the customers based on first hand knowledge of the customer's experience. The icing on the cake.......feedback from social media is much quicker than the traditional channels/methods.
Whereas, social media channels provide the shortest time to market and feedback mechanisms it also has a flip side due to the same reasons.
A wrong move over the social media can not only immediately bring a product in the news for the wrong reasons but will also require an even quicker response to quell any disquiet due to the same.
In light of the above, it becomes essential for organizations to have a well thought out strategy for the new media to be able to social-ize with their biggest sales force effectively.
After all when an entire country can come to a boiling point and result in a change in regime then it is at our own peril that we discount such a powerful democratic media.